It's been a while between purple pints. But you get the feeling we're going to be well hydrated over the next decade. Time to Restump preview podcast the start of our September quest.

Does this September participation feeling ever diminish? Or has the drought and the heartbreak of often orchestrating our own demise over the journey created this exhilaration? Not sure, but something tells me given our history, we'll never take the sight of September for granted.

It's time to put away the pitchforks and remove the hands from the holsters of those who were gunning for the club and coach.

We haven't found ourselves in finals facilitated by favourable results falling around us. We forced our way in winning 12 of our last 14, many against fierce foes. And when it came down to the final affair, the do or die clash against the dogs, we were formidably emphatic.

So, where does it position us? Past results now count for nothing and have no bearing on what is to come.

We rightly go in Saturday night as favourites, but if we have any hint of forgone conclusionary mindsets, the Suns will seize on it.

While there's a dash of relief making finals, the pressure on Saturday night is all on us. The Suns are September debutants, so they'd have a weight-off-the-shoulders feeling and an element of freedom about them, which can be a positive or a negative. Reaching finals for the first time, they may feel the job is done and subconsciously play accordingly. But they may also have that dangerous now 'nothing to lose' mentality and play unrestrained with reckless abandon.

However, lets not forget they have a 3-time premiership ‘been there done that’ coach at the helm. Damien Hardwick won't have the satisfied mindset and he'll pull all the psychological levers to ensure his players don't either.

Apart from the obvious, both teams have additional reasons to perform. For us, while it is his final appearance in WA, this could be the final time Nat Fyfe, the generational player, who won himself and us two Brownlow medals, who regularly carried out club through some dark times, graces us with his on-field presence if we lose.

And for Gold Coast, their club's first ever draftee and co-captain, David Swallow, has called time on his career and goes out in his and the Sun's debut finals campaign.

Both players could have abandoned their perennially unsuccessful clubs at times and there were no shortage of options. But they dug in and showed a rare loyalty at the expense of potential premiership expense, until now.

Interestingly, Nat Fyfe and David Swallow both are West Aussies, one club career players and both currently sit on 247 games, providing a chance to play a deserved 250.

There are a host of heartstring tugging motivations for both sides regarding these two magnificent players to draw upon, should added inspiration be required.

While we should just concentrate on the now, if we were to pull off the unthinkable, every game from here is an elimination final. And should we get to and plant our purple flag on the promised land, taking into account our elimination final against the Dogs, we'd be the first club in history to win the premiership from outside the 8!

We've been set up well by the club, the coaching staff and recruiters. They've created the framework for success and now the opportunity is there for the players.

Home and away and finals footy are two different bags, so are we ready as a group? Is the 'why not us' cliché fitting? Maybe, maybe not, but Saturday night is the first step to finding out.

There's still 48 hours or so until bouncedown! So, if you're on edge and dealing with some purple anxiety

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